Saturday, December 02, 2006

Omiyamairi

We brought Ríona for omiyamairi on Wednesday. It's the shinto equivalent of christening but without the water. She and Midori were wearing a beautiful kimono. There are pictures here. We did it at the shrine in West Ogikubo. The sun was shining and the trees were beautiful.

One amusing thing is the girl in the booth who took our details. She is a miko - a servant of God. She is supposed to be a virgin. Miko are involved in/help out with various festivals etc. These days nobody really does it as their job. It's usually a school girl or maybe college student (they need lots of miko around new year) and they're just doing it part-time. What exactly a part-time virgin means, I'm not sure!

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